“Yesterday, I showed him some public photographs from Facebook which seem to show the vice chairman of Belford Parish Council dressed as a golliwog.

“There are about half a dozen public photos from 2009 and the councillor has chosen to make one his current Facebook cover image.”

He added: “My friend told me, ‘I find that racist. To me it shows that he’s not in touch with current culture, and is disrespectful to the African, Caribbean communities. For a public figure to dress up as one is not cool.’

“It’s completely unacceptable from any elected person in 2016. I don’t want someone who think this is a laugh to represent me as a councillor.”

The chair of the parish council, Brenda Stanton, responded to Mr Stafford by saying: “I cannot answer for anybody dressing up in fancy dress because that is nothing to do with this parish council.

“He is not being a parish councillor when he is dressing up, once he leaves this room I can’t control what he does.

“I will have this minuted and we will investigate our code of conduct and we will get back to you to let you know whether there has in fact been a breach of the code of conduct.”